Guest blogger: Steve from NY

Being a Ranger fan is what I live for during the NHL season. I watch every game, studying systems and commenting from the couch. As most Ranger fans, I feel a part of this team. I get upset when they lose, joyful when they win and grow my own beard out in the playoffs. I live for this team.

Ever since my dad laced my skates up since I was four, I wanted to be Adam Graves — him always being in position, always pushing hard every shift and finding ways to put the puck in the net. He, in my opinion, is the best hockey role model anyone could look up to.

Although, not remembering him play as well now that I am older, seeing him in the Garden before games reminds me every time that this is the man who made me want to continue my hockey career. With the amount of youth service the Ranger great does, he exemplifies the class of the Rangers organization with understanding the importance of giving back.

I remember being at a hockey clinic with Glenn Anderson when I was playing in squirts. I asked him, out of all the teams he played for, which was his favorite. He responded with the Rangers because of his respect for the organization, the appreciation of the fans and winning a Stanley cup. Since his number is retired with the Oilers, maybe he gave me a white lie but what he said made me love this team even more.

I’ve witnessed overtime goals, shootout battles, and comeback games at Madison Square Garden. I’ve purchased season tickets and shared the experiences with my friends, who are all now Ranger fans. Taking the train into the city, we always make a night out of the game because even if the Rangers lose, hockey is never boring and is indeed the coolest game on Earth.

Now, with the lockout ongoing I asked myself, is this really the owners’ fault? The players did turn down a 50/50 offer, which seems fair to me. I know the players are tough men and no other athlete can endure what they go through and how they represent themselves off the ice as well. I know that the owners are not the attraction or the main event but without them we wouldn’t have tremendous competition within the league or Rick Nash. However, I am not a player or an owner, I am a hopeless fan who has to go through the process of waiting for hockey again.

Will I watch AHL, KHL, or any other hockey league? Probably not. Perhaps I will turn on college hockey once in a while; nevertheless I want my New York Rangers. I’ve been craving to see what Rick Nash will bring to the table, when King Henrik will make us jump out of our seats, or when Cally will lay out an apposing player.

I want to argue with my New England friends for who is the best in the East, talk to my dad during every game, and prove my brother wrong about players’ statistics throughout the season. I want to read Carp’s game reviews and the insight from more fans from websites and comment sections.

I will spend my money to root for this team because the excitement of hockey keeps sending me back. I am addicted to this team because I have grown up with this team. I refuse to watch the NBA and all the hype on ESPN non-stop throughout the year. It will be pure torture since I have seen all the repeat playoff games NHL Network has to offer.

As I wait until the NHL and NHLPA get sick of not making any money from the 2012-2013 season I will wait with everyone else. Trying to stay optimistic as if Gaborik was participating in the shootout and hope that both sides close out a deal soon so I can watch Hank close out his fair share of games. The fans deserve it.

44 Comments

I’m spending my lockout arguing with some dumb-asham on the hockey news site who continually posts that the NHL should get rid of all the US teams and put at least 5 more teams in Canada and it will always be profitable. There’s really not a whole lot of similar activity to hockey to help pass the time while it’s not around. I want my Msg! lol

I’m not one for letting people know when it’s my birthday (but I will bother people I know when they forget it. lol) With this in mind, every year, aside from lockout years, there’s always been a preseason game played either the day before, day of or day after my birthday which I would go to. And every year, after the game, I would get back and ask my father why he didn’t put my name up on the big screen wishing me a happy birthday (as big a fan as he is, he never quite understood why I wanted to go see a bunch of scrubs play, half of which would probably never even play one game in the NHL). He would always laugh and never had a good answer. Granted the Rangers always collected a fee for doing so. I have no idea how much it is now but around 10 years ago or so it was $50. Funny thing is he once actually called in to the Garden office to wish my mother a “happy Valentine’s Day” or “happy anniversary” or something of that sort. But he called it in too late. By the way, my mother happens to barely be a hockey fan.
Flash forward to moving down to South Florida in 2007. For the past 5 years I’ve been bothering my father about the same thing every year after the exhibition game that we’d both go to around my birthday (I guess he doesn’t mind watching the scrubs anymore, though if I ever want to take someone else he’ll gladly step aside). In fact, last year my father splurged for 4 extra tickets so we could bring along my mother, cousin and little cousins (it was their first hockey game). And by splurged I mean all 6 of the tickets were free as they were just happy people were coming to the game.
So announcements came and went and, once again, my father had failed to put my name up there.
So this year I decided, since there are no games to go to, I would put my own birthday announcement on the screen by letting all of you here know. There’s no other forum I’d rather share it with!

I have a few things lined up to help me through: I got Slap Shots dvd for my bday, i’m looking to buy last years HBO 24/7 and i might even have to go and buy Goon, Youngblood, Miracle on Ice and Mystery, Alaska (any other recommendations not including the word Ducks?) – if they run out i’m stuck. But then again my job will continue with no pay cuts or missing paychecks – so i should be grateful at least for that.

We need to get our act together, ‘heads! It’s been too quiet on the blog. *No blog lockout!*
I’m a little busy with my 2 month old baby, and I’m still trying to post here and there. “Trying” being an operative word. What’s your excuse? Are you all having twins? :-)

There’s not much either in the Space Coast, although there is a full hockey program in the neighboring town of Rockledge, that has a beautiful arena..Olympic dimensions, and they feature a full program of hockey from pee wee to Seniors, but I just can’t get into it, because it seems to be a clique ish thing, not nasty just ah, remote, and their clientele seems to be a favored grouping. I know I’m saying this badly, but there are plenty of transplanted northerners ( including Canadians)
who’ve relocated down here, so it will be successful without me( I’m way beyond my playing days)
but I just came seem to gen interest in going to their games. And I can’t handle a 200 mile trip to Miami ( or Sunrise if that’s where it is) or even the 180 mile round trip to Tampa. I know my limitations.

Steve from NY nice write up! Adam Graves always a favorite of mine. I recall him taking a crosscheck to the face needing stiches. He was back on the ice shortly like most hockey players
but he seemed to play even more determined. Prust and Callahan always remind me of him but I always thought of him as one of the toughest players.
Ilb your right I have been disappointed with the lack of hockey discussion. I think most of us are depressed over the lack of any hope of this lockout ending soon. I knpw I am.

Olga , I know your sleeping . No , NO , NO that was not anything like you took it. Just for the record , I don’t go “s’all right and talk like some farmer. There are plenty of farms around but im a city slicker 100 percent. Ive never ate a mongoose or a possum ty.

CCCP , WAKE UP!!!!!

WAKE UP THE FANS!!!!

WE NEED RANGERS!!!!

LETS GO GO GO GO GO GO GO GO !!!!

RANGERS ARE UNDEFEATED!!!!!! Mind you were winless too!!! BOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! No wins !! ughhhhhh make the madness stop!!!

TORONTO – The NHL and NHL Players’ Association have agreed to return to the bargaining table.

Deputy commissioner Bill Daly and NHL Players’ Association special counsel Steve Fehr had a face-to-face meeting Tuesday in Toronto and scheduled a formal negotiating session between the sides for Friday.

A location for the talks has yet to be determined.

Lock them in a prison cell without meal and drinks and dont let them out not before making a deal….

Circa 1270, the Cardinals couldn’t elect a Pope because of infighting. The public erupted over the long delay, and the magistrates of Viterbo locked the Cardinals in, reduced their rations to bread and water, and legendarily removed the roof of their Papal Palazzo. Unsurprisingly, they came to an agreement shorty thereafter.

Thanks for the B-Day wishes people. Where did the “26th” thing start anyway? I forgot, even though I believe it started rather recently (2 or 3 months ago?).
Fran – Sorry to hear that. Luckily I’m still young enough that a 90 minute drive wouldn’t be so bad. It takes around 30 or so to get to Sunrise from Boynton Beach. The closest non-locked out hockey is in the ECHL and is 2 and a half hours away.
This is actually one of those milestone birthdays for me so my father and I were going to try and make it to a Ranger/Toronto game in Toronto this year and check out the HHOF. Luckily the TO/NYR games don’t even take place until March and April so I’ve still got a shot at that one.
Hey UK, don’t forget Sudden Death, starring Jean Claude Van Damme which is like Die Hard at the Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh! Then again….. it’s in Pittsburgh.
Happy early one Zz!!!

Happy 26th, Evrock! It began several years ago because Josh Thomson’s bio on this page said he was 26 … for like five or six years. So I changed my bio to 26. (check it out) and now everybody here is always 26. Including you.

The owners offered 50% based on their new definition of HRR, which technically was 46% in old money. The last one they offered was 48% dropping to 46% over 3 years i think.
I think the biggest issue of the players is the rollbacks, if the NHL offered 53% to decline to 50% over 3 years and no rollbacks i reckon we’d have hockey

Is traffic drying up or is it our Jewish brothers and sisters atoning for the nuttiness of this blog? L’chaim and shana tovah! Happy 26th year on the Jewish calendar. On the Irish calendar it will always be circa cromwell1649………..

This rangers fan in indonesia have had quite sufficient of the follies of Gerry Bettsman. I took long pride in watching Hockey from lands of strangers in strange land, as such this longer time rangers’ fan is giving up the ghost pepper and will stick to the game of grasshoppers and crickets.

No hockey, but ancient philosophy make it fun. Olympic gas, man. The rotor. The thing that goes in the water. When you got being and nothingness, we opt for the former, baby. Gulfs happened here. Each sea has a thousand arms. We did one golden age. You probably didn’t have one of those. Don’t worry about it. This is an old goddamn country. We give out Revivals, Gammas, Lambdas, etc. etc. Get the word out there. And Parthenon, Corfu?

We have a sedate little neighborhood down here on the Space Coast of Florida, and the guy across the street from me, a former Army Chief Warrant Officer in the Engineering section 28 yrs and retiree, with a little ptsd, from his Viet Nam days but an OK guy nevertheless, always helping out someone in the area. He got tired of people driving through who decided to park their cars on the grassy strip along his walkway, so he decided to erect a masonry fence…I thought it would be about
two feet high which would have sufficed, but now the blocks are going in and the thing is already
about 8 feet and probably going a bit higher. I got talking with him, about it and he laughed when I called it “Hadrian’s Wall”. ( The history buffs among you can tell you about Hadrian. )
He liked it. Said “Old Hadrian would have appreciated this”…………….then told me he’s thinking about putting Hadrian’s name on it and spelling it out in some fashion.. “Hadrian’s Wall.”
We both sat down the other day with a carton of Czech beer, and reminisced old times in the military, and about the way the wall would be accepted by other neighbors. I told him not to worry what others thought, it’s his place and he’s not violating any ordnances. He also collects cats, strays that he cares for and feeds, and who just encamp around his back yard, and at feeding time they all come trickling in for their chow, and they keep the squirrels and varmints away..takes them to the Vet when needed, and so forth. He had one favorite cat that was with him all it’s life, and his wife named it Parsifal. You all know that story, ( the German version of Sir Percival who
sought the Holy Grail, etc) Well old Parsy, up and died one day, and he prepared a cemetary in his yard, and buried Parsi there, and even erected a small head stone that read, ” Here lies one damned good cat.” Keeps life interesting around here. When he and his wife go away, TBW always volunteers to feed the cats morning and night and they all know her and come running at chow time. She also knows all their names ( I don’t know any of them).
Sound nutty? Yeah, a little, but we’re a good group.